Ed Cotton: Diageo Partners With Celebrities To Win Over Consumers

Diageo is one of the smartest companies around when it comes to brands and branding; one of the few with a Brand University that schools all employees on the importance of building brands with real value.

It’s a company that has historically used advertising as a powerful lever to drive sales of its power brands. Think Johnnie Walker and Guinness.

Know Diageo appears to have discovered a fast-track to brand success- celebrity.

After having a huge success with Ciroc, a liquor they co-created and launched with Sean Puffy Combs- (600k cases in the last 6 months with double the sales volume of the previous year), the company is looking for a repeat.

This time its teaming up with Pharrell Williams- who’s something of a renaissance man; producer, musician, fashion designer, shoe designer- etc. Mr. Williams has unleashed his creative energies for Diageo- helping to create the bottle design and formula for Qream.

Diageo’s goal- reach the female drinker- women now consume a third of all drinks and purchase two-thirds.